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Sunday, 16 July 2017

On New Zealand's disappearing fresh water

When
it comes to irresponsibility and incompetence, we are well used to
National’s performance over the last eight years. Homelessness and
rising unaffordability, under-funding in healthcare and education;
corporate subsidies; wasting taxpayers’ money on pointless
exercises; increasing environmental degradation; uncontrolled
migration to prop up a lack-lustre economy; and more scandals than we
can recall – are National’s track record since 2008.

Up
till now, National’s ineptness has impacted only on New Zealanders.

Tourism
New Zealand is a Crown
Entity funded by the New Zealand Governmentand
established under the New Zealand Tourism Board Act 1991. We are led
by a Board of Directors appointed by the Minister of Tourism and have
a team of around 150 staff in 13 offices around the world. From
humble beginnings, we are now the oldest tourism marketing department
in the world.

The
current Minister of Tourism is Paula Bennett. The same Minister who
once advocatedcontraception
for beneficiaries as some kind of ‘cure’ for
sole-parenting.

Interestingly,
whilst the woman in the image is depicted as scooping up the water
and raising it toward her face, the video switches scene before her
hands reach her face.

Obviously
the producers of this video were not prepared to risk the woman’s
health by actually expecting her drink the water.

For
good reason.

Many
of New Zealand’s waterways are polluted to varying degrees by urban
and dairying run-off. In 2013, the Environment
Ministry reported that 61% of monitored rivers in New
Zealand were unsafe for swimming. Waterways were either “poor” or
“very poor” quality.

Drinking
water from our lakes, rivers, and streams is a hazardous activity in
21st Century New Zealand. There is the risk of infection;
serious illness, and perhaps death from toxic algae, giardia, e.coli,
campylobacter, etc.

Statistics
NZ has a convenient
map of e.coli levels throughout the country;

.

.

Most
New Zealanders are now aware of the serious health-risks posed by our
polluted waterways – especially as urban populations and
dairy farming has increased in the last nine years. We
have people like Dr Mike Joy, Massey University’s freshwater
ecologist, to thank for breaking the silence on our polluted
waterways;

.

Dr
Mike Joy – Massey University freshwater ecologist

.

Dr
Joy’s revelations were unpopular with many in the business
world and right-wing politics. People like National Party supporter
and corporate lobbyist, Mark
Unsworth, bitterly attacked Dr Joy in a vitriolic
email in November 2012;

“He’s
one academic, and like lawyers, I could provide you another one
that’ll give you a counter-view.”

Since
then, the demonisation of Dr Joy has been replaced with understanding
and acceptance. Like climate-change, river and lake pollution will
not conveniently ‘go away’ if we ignore it. The consequences of
ignoring the problem will be severe for us, and the environment, as
the OECD
warned us just this year;

New
Zealand’s environment is under increasing stress due to an economy
reliant on primary industries, the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD) says.

It
appeared to be resulting in environmental trade-offs, which put the
country’s “green” reputation at risk, it said.

In
a just-released report, the OECD urged New Zealand to come up with a
long-term vision to transition to a greener, low-carbon economy.

[…]

New
Zealand’s environment is under increasing stress due to an economy
reliant on primary industries, the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD) says.

It
appeared to be resulting in environmental trade-offs, which put the
country’s “green” reputation at risk, it said.

In
a just-released report, the OECD urged New Zealand to come up with a
long-term vision to transition to a greener, low-carbon economy.

[…]

It
detailed the environmental impact of farming intensification, and
warned freshwater pollution would continue under current economic
growth plans.

New
Zealand’s nitrogen balance had worsened more than any other OECD
country between 1998 and 2009, primarily due to farming
intensification.

Unfortunately,
the best efforts of the Green Party to turn back the tide of
water-pollution has often been stymied by intransigence and
self-interest in Parliament.

In
October 2012, Green MP Catherine Delahunty’s private member’s
bill – Resource
Management (Restricted Duration of Certain Discharge and Coastal
Permits) Amendment Bill –
was drawn from the Ballot. The Bill would have reduced the amount of
time that discharges could be made into our rivers “in exceptional
circumstances”. (Yes, industries are allowed to discharge waste
into our waterways! Who knew!?)

Green
MP Catherine Delahunty said her member’s bill, which has passed its
first reading, sought to close a loophole in the Resource Management
Act that allowed contaminating discharges with toxic effects and
discolouration of waters under “exceptional circumstances”.

Ms
Delahunty said the phrase included no timeframe, and had been used to
justify long-term pollution of some waterways and coastal areas.

Her
bill would limit its use to five years.

Ms
Delahunty’s Bill was voted down at it’s Second Reading by
National (59 votes); NZ First (7 votes); ACT (1 vote), and
Peter Dunne.